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Economic Base and Labor Force

Currently, the City of Gonzales has 2,230 employed residents, with 239 of them working within the city and 1,991 commuting to work elsewhere. As shown in Table 1, agriculture is the top hiring industry in Gonzales with 1,968 jobs, or 70 percent of the total jobs. Other industries in Gonzales each include less than 10 percent of the job share.

Table 1:Jobs by Industry in Gonzales

Industry

Count

Share

Agriculture

1,968

70.4%

Educational Services

236

8.4%

Manufacturing

97

3.5%

Accommodation and Food Services

97

3.5%

Other Services (excluding Public Administration)

88

3.1%

Wholesale Trade

86

3.1%

Retail Trade

74

2.6%

Health Care and Social Assistance

67

2.4%

Construction

30

1.1%

Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services

21

0.8%

Other

31

1.2%

TOTAL JOBS

2,795

100.0%

Source: Applied Development Economics, Inc.

However, while agriculture is the main economic base industry in Gonzales, according to data displayed in Table 2 only 650 of the city’s labor force work in this industry and not all 650 are hired by the agriculture sector in Gonzales. These data show that the work force in Gonzales is trained with a more diverse set of skills, including health care, public administration, and education, which leads to a high out-commute of workers.

Table 2:labor Force Distribution by Industry, Gonzales, CA

Industry

Count

Share

Agriculture

650

29.1%

Retail Trade

205

9.2%

Health Care and Social Assistance

184

8.3%

Public Administration

162

7.3%

Educational Services

154

6.9%

Accommodation and Food Services

144

6.5%

Manufacturing

138

6.2%

Wholesale Trade

101

4.5%

Other Services (excluding Public Administration)

96

4.3%

Construction

90

4.0%

Other

306

13.7%

TOTAL WORKERS

2,230

100.0%

Source: Applied Development Economics, Inc.

Table 3 categorizes the industries mentioned in previous tables into three main groups of Good Producing, Trade and Transportation, and Other services. The upper part of the table shows how the city’s labor force is distributed among these categories. The largest group of Gonzales workers is employed in the services sector. Many of these workers are employed in health care, government and education. Goods Producing industries hire 833 people from Gonzales. This sector includes agriculture, manufacturing, mining, and utilities as its subcategories.

Table 3: Employment Distribution, 2010

Industry Group

Gonzales Labor Force

All Other Services

977

Good Producing

883

Trade, Transportation, and Utilities

370

Industry Group

Commuters from Other Cities

Good Producing

2,098

All Other Services

530

Trade, Transportation, and Utilities

167

Source: Applied Development Economics, Inc.

The lower part of Table 3 shows how the in-commuters to Gonzales compare among the major industry groups. As shown in the lower portion of Table 3, most of the workers are in the Goods Producing Industries, mainly agriculture. Table 4 provides a more detailed list of the types of businesses included in this category, along with the distribution of Gonzales Workers in each business type.

Table 4:Labor Force Distribution, “All Other Services”, 2010

Industry

Number
of Workers

Percent of Total Labor Force

Health Care and Social Assistance

184

18.8%

Public Administration

162

16.6%

Educational Services

154

15.8%

Accommodation and Food Services

144

14.7%

Other Services (excluding Public Administration)

96

9.8%

Administration & Support, Waste Management

87

8.9%

Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services

44

4.5%

Finance and Insurance

33

3.4%

Management of Companies and Enterprises

27

2.8%

Information

20

2.0%

Real Estate and Rental and Leasing

15

1.5%

Arts, Entertainment, and Recreation

11

1.1%

TOTAL

977

43.8%

Source: Applied Development Economics, Inc.

As Table 5 presents, within the City of Gonzales 98 percent of the Good Producing Industries’ employment share belongs to the agricultural industry.

Table 5:Good Producing Industries in Gonzales, 2010

Industry

Count

Share

Agriculture

1,968

93.8%

Manufacturing

97

4.6%

Construction

30

1.4%

Mining, Quarrying, and Oil and Gas Extraction

3

0.1%

Source: Applied Development Economics, Inc.

Table 6 reports the top ten cities that Gonzales residents’ commute to for work. The City of Salinas hires the highest number of residents from Gonzales with a total of 535 employees, or 24% of the labor force from Gonzales. However, the data does not clarify which industries these residents work in except to the extent shown in Table 2 for all workers. Soledad, San Jose, and city of Monterey each hire less than 10 percent of the city’s labor force.

Table 6: Work Destination for Gonzales Residents, 2010

Destination City

Count

Share

Salinas

535

24.0%

Gonzales

239

10.7%

Soledad

155

7.0%

San Jose

129

5.8%

Monterey

68

3.0%

San Francisco

39

1.7%

Chualar CDP

33

1.5%

King City

33

1.5%

Fresno

27

1.2%

Gilroy

26

1.2%

All Other Locations

946

42.4%

Source: Applied Development Economics, Inc.

As shown in Table 7, the largest group of workers employed in Gonzales come from Salinas, followed by Soledad, Gonzales and the other Salinas Valley cities. A large group is reported to have residences further away, which may be their permanent residence, but not where they stay when working in Gonzales.